How does the north star (polaris) stay above the north pole ?

Question

when the earth is tilting at different angles with the seasons I would have thought the stars would appear to change position

is the earth itself tilting or is its orbit going above and below the plane of the sun but the orientation of the axis itself remaining constant

Answer 1

Polaris sits almost directly above the North Pole and is 430 light-years from Earth, so any movement by the Earth on an annual basis is insignificant from such a massive perspective.  However, due to what is known as the precession of the equinoxes, the Earth's axis traces out a conical shape rather like a wobbling top, with a period of about 25,765 years.  As a consequence, the orientation of any particular star slowly changes and every thousand years or two the role of North Star shifts from one star to another.  The title is due to pass from Polaris to Gamma Cephei (also known as Alrai) around the year 3000.

Answer 2

Polaris isn't exacly at the north pole...and theres a diference between true north and magnetic north. I reccommend you look it up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris

Answer 3

the earth itself is tilting, but its not changing the position of the north or south pole

Answer 4

The earth is oriented for its north pole to point at Polaris (+- a little). It spins like a top. It acts like a gyroscope. It doesn't like to move to any other orientation. It stays pointed to Polaris for a long time, (thousands of years). The correct wording you should use is the earth is tilted 23.5deg away from the perpendicular of the ecliptic. The orientation of the axis remains constant by anyone's lifetime and then some.

Answer 5

The Earth is most certainly NOT tilting at different angles every season. The axis points in the same direction constantly. It is the direction of the Sun which changes as the Earth orbits. Sometimes the constant direction of the north pole is more towards the Sun, and at other times, it is more away from the sun.

The axis of the Earth does change, slowly, over the course of thousands of years, but that motion is not noticeable to the naked eye over a mere lifetime.

Answer 6

The earth is, in fact, the world's largest (by definition) gyroscope.  And if you could see the little metal bar sticking out the top, you would see if currently points very close to Polaris.

The further a star lies 'away from that axis' the more it appears to move in a circle as the world turns.

Seasons occur precisely because the earth's axis does not change (much) even as it revolves around the sun.  So half of the year, the northern hemisphere points 'away from' the sun, while the southern hemisphere points 'towards' the sun.

The actual relative distance is pretty minor when you compare the earth's 4K mile radius with its 93M mile distance from the sun, however, it means that the sun's rays strike the surface 'more directly' (less glancingly) on the spot of the globe 'directly beneath it' at any given time, providing more energy per square meter at that spot on the surface of the earth.

Something to keep in mind when considering adding solar panels to your roof.